Airbus tests Bird of Prey UAV in firing of Frankenburg C-UAV missile

Airbus' Bird of Prey UAV autonomusly releases a Frankenburg Mk 1 missile during a test in Germany on 30 March 2026. (Airbus)

Airbus has conducted a demonstration flight and firing with its Bird of Prey unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The test took place on a military training area in northern Germany on 30 April 2026.

The Bird of Prey was set to autonomously locate and identify a target UAV of similar size. After it achieved this it released a Mark 1 Counter-UAV (C-UAV) missile made by Estonian company Frankenburg Technologies.

Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space said that the Bird of Prey had been integrated in into Airbus' integrated battle management system (IBMS).

Kusti Salm, CEO of Frankenburg Technologies said that the test showed demonstrated “a new cost curve for air defence and enabling defence against mass aerial threats at a fundamentally different scale.”

Based on a modified Airbus Do-DT25 drone, the Bird of Prey prototype has a 2.5 m wingspan, 3.1 m length, and 160 kg maximum takeoff weight, said Airbus.

The Mk 1 is a high-subsonic, 65 cm long, fire-and-forget missile with a maximum range of 1.5 km. It has a seeker and a fragmentation warhead.

In a statement on 30 April, Frankenburg Technologies said that a possible future operational integration of the Mk 1 on the reusable Bird of Prey would allow up to eight of the 2 kg missiles to be carried per UAV.

While this test did not continue beyond the launch of the missile to an interception, Airbus and Frankenburg said they plan to conduct additional flights with a live warhead throughout 2026.

For more, please see: Frankenburg prepares for C-UAS missile production